A tale of two Amazon Prime Days

It may not have been the best or worst of Prime Days, but the most recent edition of the annual Amazon sales extravaganza produced a wide range of metrics.

Amazon Prime Day 2026 is a wrap. As the experts examine the results it becomes clear that although the big picture looks promising, there is some underlying softness Amazon should address before Prime Day 2027. Let’s take a closer look:

Sales set a new record, but…

First the best news of all. According to data from Adobe, U.S. retailers drove $26.4 billion in online spend during the entire four-day Prime Day period, representing 9.3% growth year over year and trending above Adobe’s initial forecast of $26.3 Billion, up 9% year over year.

[READ MORE: Adobe: Prime Day to break records with $26.3B in online sales]

As a comparison, U.S. consumers spent $6.4 billion on Thanksgiving, $11.8 billion on Black Friday and $14.2 billion online on Cyber Monday during the 2025 holiday shopping season. According to Adobe, this performance suggests that summer is starting to rival the winter holidays as a shopping season.

However, Numerator analysis indicates that both average order size and average household spend were lower in 2026 than during Prime Day 2025. For both sets of data to be true, more households had to have placed more orders, which isn’t automatically a bad thing but not the best foundation for sustainable growth. 

Amazon may want to re-evaluate how it sets its Prime Day discounts and deals and if some products may have been over- or under-priced to produce year over year growth in both total sales as well as order size and average household spend. Also the retailer should look at how products were promoted and what items were selected for limited-time deal drops.

It’s also worth noting year over year figures aren’t strictly apples-to-apples, as 2026 marked the second time ever Prime Day took place in June while the 2025 iteration occurred in July. The retailer may want to move Prime Day back to its midsummer positioning or see if some products sell better in June than July.

Shoppers get smart and social, stay on the go

Traditional desktop shoppers continue declining as a total share of Prime Day activity, and it’s very much a good thing. Adobe data indicates that mobile shopping hit an all-time high, driving 54.2% of online sales and contributing a record $14.2 billion in spend. This reflects basic societal trends of consumers relying on their smartphones as their primary connected devices for all digital activities.

But other, newer technologies are also having what appears to be a positive impact on Prime Day. AI traffic to U.S. retail sites (measured by shoppers clicking on a link) increased 89% year over year during Prime Day, Adobe data indicates, and converted 40% better than traffic from other channels. 

This suggests being able to find products using conversational language makes customers more likely to buy, and Amazon is a leader in AI-enabled shopping. In addition, social media drove a 4.4% share of revenue but is growing the fastest as a source of Prime Day revenue (up 15.8% year over year). 

And notably, influencers converted shoppers (individuals making a purchase after seeing influencer content) 11 times more than social networks overall. Affiliates and partners also drove the highest "add-to-cart rates" at 9%, along with checkout initiation at 56%, outpacing social media overall at 3% and 28%, respectively. 

Amazon has also been increasing its presence in affiliate and social shopping with initiatives such as its recent direct linkage of creator storefronts to their Pinterest accounts, and presumably will have more programs like this in place next year.

Is Prime Day losing its appeal?

Asking about Prime Day losing its appeal may seem a strange question considering the sales Amazon racked up this year, but another Numerator statistic should give the online giant pause. 

According to Numerator, 37% of Prime Day customers said the event was their primary reason for shopping, down roughly one-quarter from 50% the year prior. Almost all customers were aware it was Prime Day and had shopped the event before, so it’s unlikely Prime Day will fade away anytime soon.

But Amazon should still work on ways to boost Prime Day’s appeal as a primary reason to shop. These could include more limited-time deals, leveraging its platforms such as Twitch and Prime Video for alternative promotions and programming, working with third-party partners (such as Pinterest), or adding gamification elements to create additional buzz.